[devnullbrain]

>You can protect your data, and your code. But you can't really stop someone quitting a job at your company, working somewhere else and reimplementing a software system that worked well. It might take years to do it, but probably not decades.

I don't even think this case is undesirable. If we were welders, it would be absurd to be prevented from using a welding technique we learned on the job at a new employer. System design is just a technique.

[jen20]

If it were a genuinely innovative new technique, it should be patented, which will grant exclusivity for some period in exchange for it _not_ being a trade secret.

[jandrewrogers]

Patents have become effectively unenforceable in many domains. The retreat to trade secrets is a reaction to this. Eschewing patents in favor of trade secrets is a common strategy these days. Ironically, this was the situation patents were intended to prevent, were they enforceable.